On his first stop of a five-nation tour of the disaster zone, Erdogan - the fifth foreign leader to tour Aceh - was welcomed at the airport in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, by Indonesian Social Affairs Minister Bachtiar Chamsyah and 30 of about 200 Turkish aid workers sent there by the Turkish Red Crescent Society.

In the course of a visit to devastated Lhoknga village, Erdogan said Turkey had "a humanitarian and Islamic duty to serve here," having experienced its own tragedy when two earthquakes killed about 18,000 people in 1999.

"The needs we see here - the schools, housing, orphanages, hospitals - we will do our best to assist," Erdogan said.